On Oct. 6, my life was forever changed. When my name was announced as the People’s Choice Grand Prize Winner at Artprize 9 in Grand Rapids, I was in a state of shock and disbelief.

However, the first thing that came to mind as I approached the podium to accept the award was how proud I was to bring the winner back home. So I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the hundreds, if not thousands, of folks from Battle Creek who visited the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel during Artprize to see “A.Lincoln.” Seeing and talking to many of you, not only warmed my heart, but gave me hope that perhaps I might be one of the finalists. I can’t thank you enough.

I am not sure where “A.Lincoln’s” final home will be, but for the next few months you can still see this year’s Grand Prize winner on exhibit at the Battle Creek Community Foundation, 32 W. Michigan Ave., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and Noon to 2 p.m. on Sundays.

Richard Schlatter

Battle Creek

American food waste and you

Why is America the most wasteful nation? 2.6 million of our estimated 323.1 million die per year, and we replenish that number, plus 1.3 million in births. That means our population is growing by over 1,000,000 per year, great right? America is a big place, we have plenty of room for new kids, sure. I mean, if you ignore the terrible educational systems in some places, the good education systems that are getting torn down by the government, the not the worst but still pretty bad crime rate, the shrinking number of jobs, and poor leadership, it sounds pretty good. But there is one problem that gets pretty hard to ignore pretty fast. It’s the fact that of those 4,000,000 babies that are born every year, and the 74,000,000 other children under the age of 18 in america, 13,000,000 of them will go hungry says a study conducted by www.nokidhungry.org. Why is this? We are a huge country, with lots of money, and lots of industry, all fingers point to us being able to feed our people.

I have worked for restaurants for years now, and in recent history investigated many more. From dumpster diving to peeks in the kitchen, here’s what I have learned. We have the supply, we have the demand, but we don’t have a middle man to get the supply out there. Big name companies are too lazy to hire people to distribute food they were going to throw out. If they did shell out and hire people to redistribute food, we would see more fully stocked homes.

What changed the average American mindset from being so helpful to being so wasteful? Well first, let me take you back to the 50’s. 1955 McDonald's made its big debut. The grand opening, of a restaurant that promised quality food, skimpy prices, and fast service all in one package. The very first of its kind. It took like wildfire to the american economy. The amount of money they made and how many new locations they opened and how fast it happened proves this. People loved it. McDonald’s, by nature, makes a lot of food. They have a huge demand to fill, and a huge supply to draw from. They always have and as it seems, they always will. But until recent years, most of that supply was going in the trash. McDonald’s used to throw out any extra food that was left at the end of the day, which back when McDonald’s had an end of the day, was a lot of food. The workers wanted this to stop, naturally. The 60’s were a bit of a mess, but generally people wanted to be helpful, and wasting food was a bit taboo. But the revolutionary concept of a fast food restaurant swept the nation, and everybody wanted a piece of the sweet Americanised pie. Company after company sprouted, making mountains of food, and subsequently throwing half of it to the rats at closing time. Soon, all restaurants would try to be faster, more efficient, and consequently more wasteful. This phenomena would see America's sharp rise in food waste.

Even though McDonald's has since seen their mistakes and corrected themselves by instituting a zero food waste policy on their workers, it is too late. They set a trend that seemingly can't be stopped. Grocery stores, burger joints, Americanised Mexican food places, sub sandwich delis, pizza and grinder restaurants, even that awesome little butchery on the corner run by that sweet old guy in the white apron, they all throw out piles of usable food. Do we have a plan? How do we stop this? Are there any regulations in place to stop this? No. There is no plan. There are no regulations. The USDA barely has a word to say. One article with a vague set of guidelines that won't be enacted till 2030 hidden in the back of their website, that is near impossible to find from the home page, is all they’ve got. Our beloved government, has nothing. Good ol’ Uncle Sam is speechless, and just as wasteful as the rest of us.